"No clue what the prototypicality of this suggestion is, so perhaps a non-starter ... and it would require more depth ... but how about having the long narrow buildings be a bit less long, rotate them 90 degrees, and have them jutting out into the body of water. Then they would be less of an obstacle to your point of view."

This is a freelanced fictional town so the prototypicality don't matter. I just will try to make it look plausible for the TT models I have. If I keep the tracks in front of the buildings then not being able to see the water behind them will be a positive. The problem would then be how to handle the water/backdrop joint in the places where there are no buildings. The shoreline will only be about an inch above the water so there's not much land to hide the joint. Someone suggested I model the sky as fog so maybe I can paint the water fog colored as it nears the backdrop. I think I'll have to mock up a short benchwork section and see how it looks full size....DaveB